Follow people in SharePoint
Learn about common programming tasks for following people in SharePoint.
APIs for following people in SharePoint
When a user follows people in SharePoint, microblog posts that the people publish and notifications about their activities show up in the user's newsfeed. The features related to following people can be seen on the Newsfeed and People I'm following pages.
SharePoint provides the following APIs that you can use to programmatically follow people:
Client object models for managed code
.NET client object model
Silverlight client object model
Mobile client object model
JavaScript object model
Representational State Transfer (REST) service
Server object model
As a best practice in SharePoint development, use client APIs when you can. Client APIs include the client object models, a JavaScript object model, and a REST service. For more information about the APIs in SharePoint and when to use them, see Choose the right API set in SharePoint.
Each API includes a manager object that you use to perform core tasks for following people.
Note
The same APIs are used to follow content. See Follow content in SharePoint for an overview of Following Content tasks.
Table 1 shows the manager and other key objects (or REST resources) in the APIs and the class library (or access point) where you can find them.
Note
The Silverlight and mobile client object models are not explicitly included in Table 1 or Table 2 because they provide the same core functionality as the .NET client object model and use the same signatures. The Silverlight client object model is defined in Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.Silverlight.dll, and the mobile client object model is defined in Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.Phone.dll.
Table 1. SharePoint APIs used for following people programmatically
| API | Key objects |
|---|---|
| .NET client object model See: How to: Follow people by using the .NET client object model in SharePoint |
Manager object: SocialFollowingManager Primary namespace: Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Social Other key objects: SocialActor , SocialActorInfo , SocialActorType , SocialActorTypes Class library: Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.dll |
| JavaScript object model See: How to: Follow people by using the JavaScript object model in SharePoint |
Manager object: SocialFollowingManager Primary namespace: SP.Social Other key objects: SocialActor, SocialActorInfo, SocialActorType, SocialActorTypes Class library: SP.UserProfiles.js |
| REST service See: Following people and content REST API reference for SharePoint |
Manager resource: social.following Endpoint URI: <siteUri>/_api/social.following Primary namespace (OData.md): sp.social.SocialRestFollowingManager Other key resources: SocialActor, SocialActorInfo, SocialActorType, SocialActorTypes |
| Server object model | Manager object: SPSocialFollowingManager Primary namespace: Microsoft.Office.Server.Social Other key objects: SPSocialActor , SPSocialActorInfo , SPSocialActorType , SPSocialActorTypes Class library: Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.dll |
Common programming tasks for following people in SharePoint
Table 2 shows common programming tasks for following people and the members that you use to perform them. Members are from the .NET client object model (CSOM), JavaScript object model (JSOM), REST service, and server object model (SSOM).
Note
The same APIs are used to follow content. See Follow content in SharePoint for an overview of Following Content tasks.
The SocialFollowingManager object consolidates the core Following People and Following Content functionality for the current user. However, the PeopleManager object (see Table 3) provides some functionality that SocialFollowingManager does not provide, including methods to obtain the Following People status of other users.
Table 2. API for common tasks for following people by using the SocialFollowingManager object
| Task | Members |
|---|---|
| Create an instance of a manager object in the context of the current user | CSOM: SocialFollowingManager JSOM: SocialFollowingManager REST: <siteUri>/_api/social.following SSOM: SPSocialFollowingManager |
| Create an instance of a manager object in the context of a particular user | CSOM: not implemented JSOM: not implemented REST: not implemented SSOM: SPSocialFollowingManager (overloaded) |
| Have the current user start following (stop following) someone | CSOM: Follow ( StopFollowing ) JSOM: follow ( stopFollowing) REST: POST <siteUri>/_api/social.following/Follow (<siteUri>/_api/social.following/StopFollowing) and pass the actor parameter in the request body SSOM: Follow ( StopFollowing ) |
| Find out whether the current user is following a particular user | CSOM: IsFollowed JSOM: isFollowed REST: POST <siteUri>/_api/social.following/my/IsFollowed and pass the actor parameter in the request body SSOM: IsFollowed |
| Get the people who are following the current user | CSOM: GetFollowers JSOM: getFollowers REST: GET <siteUri>/_api/social.following/my/FollowersSSOM: GetFollowers |
| Get the people who the current user is following | CSOM: GetFollowed JSOM: getFollowed REST: GET <siteUri>/_api/social.following/my/Followed(types=1)SSOM: GetFollowed |
| Get the count of people who the current user is following | CSOM: GetFollowedCount JSOM: getFollowedCount REST: GET <siteUri>/_api/social.following/my/FollowedCount(types=1)SSOM: GetFollowedCount |
| Get the people who the current user might want to follow | CSOM: GetSuggestions JSOM: getSuggestions REST: GET <siteUri>/_api/social.following/my/SuggestionsSSOM: GetSuggestions |
Table 3 shows the PeopleManager members that you can use for additional Following People functionality.
Table 3. API for common tasks for following people by using the PeopleManager object
| Task | Members |
|---|---|
| Find out whether the People I'm Following list for the current user is public | CSOM: IsMyPeopleListPublic JSOM: isMyPeopleListPublic REST: IsMyPeopleListPublic Example: GET <siteUri>/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/IsMyPeopleListPublic SSOM: IsMyPeopleListPublic |
| Find out whether someone is following the current user | CSOM: AmIFollowedBy JSOM: amIFollowedBy REST: AmIFollowedBy Example: GET <siteUri>/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/AmIFollowedBy(accountName=@v)?@v='domain\\user' SSOM: AmIFollowedBy |
| Get the people who a particular user is following | CSOM: GetPeopleFollowedBy JSOM: getPeopleFollowedBy REST: GetPeopleFollowedBy Example: GET <siteUri>/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetPeopleFollowedBy(accountName=@v)?@v='domain\\user' SSOM: GetPeopleFollowedBy |
| Get the people who are following a particular user | CSOM: GetFollowersFor JSOM: getFollowersFor REST: GetFollowersFor Example: GET <siteUri>/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetFollowersFor(accountName=@v)?@v='domain\\user' SSOM: GetFollowersFor |
| Find out whether a particular user is following another user | CSOM: IsFollowing JSOM: isFollowing REST: IsFollowing (static) Example: GET <siteUri>/_api/SP_UserProfiles_PeopleManager_IsFollowing(possibleFollowerAccountName=@v,possibleFolloweeAccountName=@y)?@v='domain\\user'&@y='domain\\user' SSOM: IsFollowing |
How People Suggestions works on SharePoint Online
Results for People Suggestions are based on established Following People activity. Suggestions are offered when a user is following someone who has a mutual following with someone else who the user is not already following.
Following-related information is indexed during search crawls. After a crawl is complete, search analytics must then analyze the crawled Following information and output user suggestions. By default, search analytics runs once per day.
When a user opens the People I'm following page, the PeopleManager.GetMySuggestions() method is called. GetMySuggestions searches for new suggestions for the current user, updates the user's suggestions in the database, and presents the suggestions on the page.